As is known, the use of cell phones is becoming increasingly popular. One drawback with the operation of known cell phones is the time required to acquire the service provider communications network when powering up in any particular cell. This can present drawbacks. For example, the user is required to wait until the network is acquired before being able to utilize the phone for communications. Even though this may not require a great amount of time, in view of today's fast paced world and general impatience of the population, this can present an inconvenience. Additionally, any time required for acquisition of the network utilizes available battery life that could otherwise be used by the user for communicating with the phone.
Currently, in acquiring the service provider network when powering up, the mobile communications device must scan through a large number of control channels in a bandmap to acquire the one channel that is assigned to the cell/sector in which the phone is located when powering up. The phone sequentially scans the bandmap to find the channel of the cell in which the phone is located. This can present delays and inefficiencies in the powering up process.
For example, assume that there are 200 control channels in the network numbered 1 through 200 in the bandmap. Further assume that the phone is located in a cell that is serviced by control channel number 200. If it takes an average of 0.40 seconds to scan each control channel in the bandmap, a total time of 80 seconds will be required (0.40 seconds×200 channels) for the phone to sequentially scan the bandmap before it finds channel number 200. Thus, at least 80 seconds is required before the phone can acquire the network with channel number 200. As discussed above, this is inefficient and can be inconvenient.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide an improved method and system for acquisition of a service provider communications network by a mobile communications device.